FINN

"Hope you know what you're doing, man," Mal said, shoving away from the desk and patting the back of the chair he'd just hopped out of. I took my place and clicked on the green plant icon Mal had picked for Ivy.

"Why does everyone but Winter and me think this is a bad idea?" When we'd gone in to deliver the fries and job offer, Ivy's reception had been chilly. She wouldn't have taken the job if Winter hadn't declared it the answer to all their problems.

Winter kicked me out shortly after, probably to make the hard sell, and I went home. I found all but one of my roommates chilling in front of the television watching Will Smith kill aliens. I laid out the business proposition and was met with silence. Noah had muttered "poor schmuck," and Adam looked at me and said, "Dead man walking." Confused, I looked to Grace for an explanation. "If Noah dated Lana before me, I wouldn't have wanted him within five feet of her ever, let alone working with him for eight hours a day," she'd said.

"I'm not going to cheat on Winter," I replied steely. I'd never cheated on anyone in the past, not even Ivy when I knew she was sleeping around to score extra drugs.

"I believe you. It's Winter you have to convince," Grace replied.

And then everyone else nodded, looking at me with disbelief mixed with sympathy.

Mal pressed a sticky note with Ivy's password on it to the side of the monitor. "Adam said she was a shitty girlfriend. Can't imagine she'd be a good employee either."

"She knows the alphabet and can count. That's about all I need her to do in here. And it's not going to be forever. I've only got eight months left on this build, and then I can be done."

"Sure." I could tell by the tone of his voice he didn't believe it. "I set it up so she can't touch any of the programs dealing with your accounting software. She can't issue checks or even go to micropayment sites on the internet. And I've blocked most sites’ access anyway but still put on a key logger so you can trace whatever action she's conducting on your laptop."

"Adam talked to you?" I hadn't said a word about Ivy's past to anyone, other than to say I'd dated her in high school and college and we broke up.

Mal nodded. "After you asked me to set up a computer account for her, Adam told me to make sure your financials were locked down tight. She steal from you?"

Reluctantly, I nodded. "A few hundred here or there. She thought I could spare it, and I could. I just didn't want to spend it on her drugs."

"Adam also said you paid for her legal fees when she was pursuing guardianship over her sister."

"Adam has a big, fat fucking mouth."

"He doesn't want to see you get fucked over again."

I leaned back in the chair and folded my hands behind my head. "I'm doing this for Winter, just like I paid those legal bills, just like I lied on the stand and swore Ivy would be a good guardian. I've always wanted to take care of Winter. I just didn't know it extended beyond that until two months ago. When I walked away from Ivy, I walked away from Winter. Do you know she spent all their parents' life insurance as well as the proceeds from selling the house to get Ivy clean? No one was there for Winter then. No one. But she's not going to be alone anymore because I'm here, and I'll be damned if I see her try to shoulder another of Ivy's mistakes without help."

Mal gave me a rueful smile. "I hear you, man. I admire that. I just hope this Ivy chick doesn't fuck it up for you."

"That's on me, though, isn't it?" It was more of a reminder to myself than a question.

* * *

"What is it that you're building here?" Ivy asked. A few of the construction guys stared at her as we walked toward the office trailer. Maybe one of them would screw up the courage to ask her out and then marry her, taking the burden off Winter's shoulders.

"Multi-use building," I replied. "This is the office trailer. There's my desk, which you can use. The computer, printer-slash-fax machine, tool chests, fire extinguisher. A couple first aid kits. Refrigerator. Help yourself to whatever is in there." I paused. Was there beer in there? Shit, I should have taken that out. Hurriedly, I moved on. "Here's the filing cabinet." I slapped the side of the sturdy metal unit that Mal and I had hauled in this morning after he'd fixed the laptop. "And those are the papers that need to filed and organized. Put the bills in date due order, file any permits. The trade magazines can be stacked into the front shelves."

"Where's the bathroom?"

"Right there." I pointed to the two porta-potties outside.

"Seriously? That's so disgusting, and look at this shit.”

“Just kidding. There’s a bathroom in the back.”

She glared and me and then pointed to the mountain of half-opened mail. "How can you find anything?"

"I can't," I admitted. "Which is why I hired you."

"Aren't you worried some of your bills are in arrears?"

Arrears?

She lifted a few of the papers with one finger, as if she was scared to touch them. "What? I can't use the word arrears? One of my favorite drug dealers used that all the time. ‘Ivy, one of my clients is in arrears. Should we give him more time to pay or collect it now?’"

Great. She was hardly here longer than a few minutes and she was joking about her drug dealer. Maybe Mal was right, and this was a huge mistake.

"Oh my God." She slapped a hand over her heart and laughed. "I wish you could see the utter horror on your face when I said drug dealer. When did you become such a straight edge?"

"You really don't know anything about me," I replied evenly. It probably wouldn't make Winter happy if I fired Ivy only minutes after bringing her onboard. Winter was the only one who was thrilled with the idea. Everyone else thought it was the dumbest thing ever. But Ivy needed a job. That was one headache I could relieve for Winter. I was going to remove every little headache and obstacle until there was nothing standing between the two of us. First up? Getting Ivy a job. I wasn't going to back down now. "Your password is written down here. Memorize it, and then shred the post it." I tapped the yellow sticky.

"Shit, I can't even remember what a burger at a fast food joint costs, and I'm supposed to remember this?"

I bit down to keep my temper in check. "I'm running a business, and businesses require secure passwords."

"Whatever. Don't you think this project is too big for you? I thought all you did were like one bedroom houses over on the east side," she said and flipped her hair over her shoulder. It was an action she'd done plenty of times in the past, and it never failed to draw attention to one of her major attributes. But even as the motion drew my eyes to her hair, the blond locks had zero effect on me. I preferred the coal black of Winter's straight hair. It did make me look at Ivy more closely though. She'd curled her hair, and she was wearing a lot of makeup and a shirt that had a pretty deep V-neck. She'd get plenty of attention if she walked around the site like that. I had a niggling feeling there was something I was missing, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

I picked up the extra walkie-talkie and placed it by the computer. "If you need anything, press the button to talk. When it's pressed you can't hear anyone, so try to remember that."

"Are we just going to ignore that night?" She stepped closer, close enough that I could smell her perfume. I shifted to the side and then walked toward the door.

"Yes." I placed my hand on the doorknob, but before I could escape, she threw the bomb.

"This baby could be yours."

It was her aggressive and challenging tone almost more than her words that made me explode. "The hell it is. Have you told Winter this?"

"No."

"You'd better not because we both know I didn't fucking touch you that night," I snarled.

She shrugged, but she didn't quite pull off the nonchalance she was trying to project. "How else did I get pregnant? It wasn't an immaculate conception."

I had thought about that night a million times since learning about Ivy's pregnancy, and every time I replayed the events, I woke up wearing my jeans and a clean dick inside my shorts.

"Are you saying you've only slept with me since you got out of prison?"

"I'm not the type of girl to kiss and tell." She gave me a smug smile.

I thought about all the men she'd slept with and barely held in a nasty retort. "It's not mine," I repeated. "You better not break your sister's heart because you're jealous of her."

"I'm jealous." She laughed, but the sound was hollow.

"Yes. Sick green with it. She's got friends who care about her, a good job, and me." Maybe I wasn't a huge prize, but I was something Ivy had that she pissed away.

"I’m not jealous of my sister. I want her to be happy."

"Then you'll keep your nasty insinuations to yourself." I wrenched open the door and then paused, pinning her with a look of disgust. "You've been selfish all your life, and your sister, who loves you more than anything, has taken the brunt of it." She smoothed a hand across her stomach, the stomach that was supposedly holding a kid that could be mine. I tried to feel some fatherly excitement, but there was nothing. All the feelings I'd ever held for Ivy were dead. I didn't give a fuck that she was pregnant. "You're a liar and a cheat, Ivy. I don't believe you."

"It doesn't matter. Point is that you aren't the type of guy I want my sister with. She deserves better." Ivy dropped into the chair behind the desk and started sorting. "But you'll screw up, and she'll break up with you."

"What's the perfect guy for your sister?" I asked against my better judgment, angrily tapping my helmet against my leg.

"Someone real smart and artistic. He'd be close to her height so she wouldn't have to constantly be craning her neck to see his face." Ivy stretched out her chin. "He'd be a family guy, one that didn't already have kids with her sister."

The thought of Winter with another guy—any other guy—made me curl my hands into fists. I nearly broke the trailer doorknob off. "Funny how Winter has never once mentioned that she minds I'm taller than her. In fact, she's pretty damn happy that I can lift and carry…stuff."

"Probably because she doesn't want to hurt your feelings." She buried her head in the papers. The conversation may have been over for her, but it wasn't for me.

"I'm giving you an opportunity because I care about your sister and I want her to be happy. I've never had to fire anyone, and I don't want to start with you." I reached for the door and saw two guys walking toward the trailer. Throwing open the door, I called out to the guys.

"Come on in. Meet our new office lady. Ivy Donovan. She's single, guys." I winked at them and left the door hanging in the wind.

"Boss, you ready for the walk through?" Henry appeared at my side.

"Yeah."

"Got a headache?" he asked as I rubbed my temple.

I gave him a grim smile. "Gardening problems. Too much Ivy."

With a snort, he gave a nod of understanding. "That shit gets everywhere."

"You're telling me."